11.2.98 Belfast Music Society Celebrity Concerts

TASMIN LITTLE MARTIN ROSCOE PROGRAMME Supported by the Sonata in B flat, K454 Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 21 The Fountains of Arethusa Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 ARTS COUNCIL BE CITY Saturday 11 February 1995 Elmwood Hall, 7.30 pm EL AY - F ST violin piano MOZART DOHNANYI SZYMANOWSKI BRAHMS COUNCIL NATIONAL FEDERATION OF MUSIC SOCIETIES NEMS

Sonata in B flat, K454 largo - allegro laiv andante allegretto 300201 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756-1791 Working to deadlines has always been a composer's nightmare. An announced first performance is all right if the work is complete, but a problem if lack of inspiration, or illness or indolence results in the date approaching with the promised composition unfinished. If it is complete in your head, and you are a genius like Mozart, then all need not be lost, and indeed this was the case with the present sonata. Mozart entered the work in his catalogue on 21st April 1784, when it was obviously completed to his satisfaction in his mind. Fortunately, by the time of the work's première eight days later, the violinist, Regina Strinasacchi, had her part in front of her, but, as the Emperor Joseph discovered when he asked to see Mozart's music after the concert, the piano part was blank - Mozart had played the entire sonata from memory! The manuscript bears out what might other- wise be considered merely a 'good story' - the violin and piano parts are in different inks and the piano part in places has had to be squashed in to fit under the already written violin part. Rushed job or not, this sonata is one of Mozart's greatest, and worthy to sit beside the key chamber works of this period, the six string quartets dedi- cated to Haydn. The opening allegro is preceded by a brief and intense slow introduction, indicating that this sonata is to be no lightweight. It is soon clear, too, that the two instruments are equal partners. This can be clearly heard in the central slow movement where both contribute in turn to an intensely profound utterance. The finale is good-humoured and tuneful, but manages to preserve the seriousness of purpose that has characterised the whole sonata. - 1-

Sonata in C sharp minor, Op. 21 allegro appassionato - allegro ma con tenerezza - vivace assai Ernö Dohnányi 1877-1960 Fate was not kind to Dohnányi; it provided for him, as contemporaries in his native Hungary, one great composer, Kodály, and one of the supreme masters of 20th century music, Bartók. Whereas they forged new and highly individual musical languages for themselves, Dohnányi was content to write largely within the traditions of German music of the late 19th century, and in particular that of Brahms. Like Brahms, the piano was his instrument, in fact he was one of the great pianists of the century. Like Brahms, too, he was interested in chamber music. There are three string quartets, two piano quintets, a string trio, a very attractive sextet and one sonata each for cello and for violin. There is also the Ruralia Hungarica suite for violin and piano, better known in its orchestral guise. The violin sonata dates from 1912 and is a highly unified work, the three movements being linked both physically and thematically. The three notes with which the violin opens the sonata form a motto for the whole work, influencing the chief thematic material of all three movements. The central movement is cast in the form of a theme and variations. The motto figure is enshrined in the theme, which is followed by six variations. The jig-like finale bursts in fortissimo with the motto; there is a gentler slow central section with reminiscences of the previous movement, and at the sonata's conclusion, the music of its opening returns to tie all together. The Fountain of Arethusa Karol Szymanowski 1883-1937 Szymanowski's Trzy Mity (Three Myths) of 1915 is a key work in his musical development. His compositions from before 1914 belong to the Spirit of German late Romanticism, of Wagner and Strauss. Realising that this line was a dead end, and receiving inspiration both from trips from his

native Poland to the East, and from performances he attended of works by Debussy and Stravinsky, he began to develop an impressionistic musical language of his own. Trapped in Russia during the war, he read widely in the literature of Classical Greece and Rome and of other ancient cultures, and his music of the period reflects this - e.g. his third symphony, with its 13th century Persian text, his cycle Songs of the Infatuated Muezzin, and the Myths. The Fountain of Arethusa is the first and most often played of the Myths (the other two are Narcissus, and Dryads and Pan) and is a magical water painting, full of intriguing sonorities. Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108 allegro adagio un poco presto e con sentimento presto agitato Johannes Brahms 1833-97 This is the last of the three sonatas Brahms published for the medium (he is believed to have composed and destroyed many other violin and piano works). It is also the largest, not just in its having four movements rather than three, but also in its 'spiritual' presence. The sonata provides another example, too, of Brahms' fondness for writing works in contrasting pairs. He began work on both this sonata and the A major in 1886, though the present work wasn't completed until 1888; the contrast with the A major sonata could hardly be greater. Some of the work's mood may spring from his deep resentment at a sharp attack on his music that had come from the philosopher (and amateur composer) Nietzsche who had called Brahms a 'musical eunuch' whose works were 'melancholy and impotent'. This was sour grapes, for Brahms had earlier made clear his opinion on Nietzsche's musical abilities. The sonata was dedicated to the composer/conductor Hans von Bülow, as a gesture of reconciliation (the prickly Brahms was not, it will be seen, very successful at cordial relationships!) The sonata's seriousness of purpose, and also the breadth of its themes, will be immediately obvious from the opening pages. There is much passion, -3-

even anger, in this movement, though it evaporates in time for a resigned, if not peaceful, conclusion. The slow movement presents Brahms the creator of those long-breathed autumnal melodies that characterise his late works. The brief third movement is intermezzo rather than scherzo, while the finale is, in contrast, a forceful gallop, grim and serious in mood. Alec Macdonald 1995 TONIGHT'S ARTISTS TASMIN LITTLE Born in London, Tasmin Little studied with Pauline Scott at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music -where she won the Gold Medal in 1986 - and with Lorand Fenyves in Canada She has given concerto and recital performances throughout the United Kingdom, Europe, Scandinavia, Canada, China, India, Zimbabwe and South America. Tasmin Little has played with many of the world's great orchestras, including the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Symphony, Royal Danish, Royal Philharmonic, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, the Halle, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony and the Ulster Orchestra with conductors including Kurt Masur, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Charles Groves, Sir Charles Mackerras, Vernon Handley, Sir Edward Downes, Richard Hickox, Mathias Bamert, Sian Edwards, Jan Pascal Tortelier, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Sir Yehudi Menuhin and Andrew Davis. An acknowledged interpreter of the music of Delius, her paper on the Violin Concerto has been published by the Delius Society. Her many television appearances have included ITV's "Highway" and a Yorkshire TV documentary "Little by Little". Her performance of the Bruch Concerto for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic's 150th Anniversary Royal Gala Concert given before Her Majesty's was broadcast for Granada Television. Tasmin Little's recordings have been released to great critical acclaim. She plays a Guadagnini of 1757. 4-

MARTIN ROSCOE Martin Roscoe is one of the busiest and most versatile concert pianists in Britain. Regularly invited to perform with most of the major orchestras in the UK, he has a particularly close association with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he has given over sixty concerts. He has also performed abroad in Europe, South America, Australia, Cuba, Singapore and Hong Kong. He has worked with many leading conductors including Christoph von Dohnanyi, Libor Pesek, Simon Rattle, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Yuri Temirkanov, Andrew Litton, Richard Hickox and Kent Nagano. As a conductor and director himself he works with various chamber orchestras. In addition, Martin Roscoe is the Artistic Director of the Blackburn International Piano Week and of the Beverley Chamber Music Festival. Having given over 250 broadcasts as recitalist, chamber musician and concerto soloist, Martin Roscoe is one of the most frequently heard pianists on BBC Radio 3. Highlights have included a complete Schubert sonata cycle and four Henry Wood Promenade concerts in recent years. "He is a musician of intelligence and complete technical assurance in a wide repertoire, who never imposes his own personality on the music he plays and who makes it sound twice as good as many others who do." David Fanning (The Independent) NEXT RECITAL Saturday 11 March 1995 GORDON FERGUS-THOMPSON - piano Elmwood Hall 7.30 pm dig.